This month we are highlighting alumni Carol Whipple! Carol (FASLA) graduated from the BLA program in 1983 and has worked on a number of projects that encompass historic preservation, restorations, new visitor facilities, and memorials. She worked for the National Park Service for 31 years and received the Presidential Design Award for successfully managing the design and construction of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. She was the project landscape architect for the White House under several Presidential administrations where she completed over 50 planning, design, and construction projects. She was elected as a Fellow of the ASLA in 2002 and has always strongly advocated for the landscape architecture profession and has served on numerous national committees of the ASLA and allied organizations. Now retired, Carol advocates for landscape architecture through involvement on local park advisory boards and as a lecturer to civic groups. Read more about Carol’s award-winning career in landscape architecture…
Category: Alumni
Alumni Spotlight: Craig Skipton ’03
This month we are highlighting Craig Skipton! He graduated from the MLA program in 2003 and currently works as the director of landscape architecture for Western Washington at AHBL. Craig is committed to diversifying what landscape architects do by engaging with people’s passions, finding new ways to bridge the gap between science and landscape architecture as well as improving educational environments through design. Craig and his wife also run a farm together called Heyday Farm on Bainbridge Island, which was completely designed and built by him! Read on to learn more of his story!
Alumni Spotlight: Biruk Belay BLA ’14
This month we are spotlighting landscape architect Biruk Belay (BLA, 2014). He currently lives in Seattle and works at Site Workshop. UWLA: Could you outline your professional journey between graduation and today? BB: I graduated with a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture in 2014. During my final year of school, I was able to secure an internship at a firm here in Seattle. Soon after that, I had the opportunity to practice Landscape Architecture in Boston, Massachusetts where I spent…
Sherry Xu (MLA ’22) in Kubota Garden Foundation Newsletter
Meet Sherry Xu When I first entered Kubota Garden, I was struck by its unique and traditional Japanese landscape features. I wanted to know more about how such a beautiful Japanese garden was designed, built, developed, and maintained, so I decided to volunteer with the Kubota Garden Foundation. To learn more about Kubota Garden, I decided to participate in the “Tuesdays in the Garden” events first. During the weekly mulching and weeding activities, I was fortunate to meet many volunteers…
WASLA: ASLA 2022 National Conference Stipend Recipients
Congratulations to the 2022 ASLA National Conference Stipend recipients, Kove Janeski and Natalie Weiss (both MLA ’24), and Emerging Professionals Rebecca Bachman and Lauren Iversen (both MLA ’20). Thanks to the generous support of our local ASLA – Washington Chapter, our students were able to attend this year’s ASLA Conference in San Francisco.
Video: How land design is answering the cultural needs of Native Americans in Seattle
Tim Lehman (Northern Arapaho), MLA graduate and lecturer, talks about his work with Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center and local Indigenous communities. | The Seattle Times
Mikyoung Kim Design, UW alums, Recipient of ASLA Firm of the Year Award
The American Society of Landscape Architects recently awarded Mikyoung Kim Design the Firm of the Year Award, the highest honor that the ASLA bestows on a landscape architecture firm. Congratulations to UW alums, Associate Principal Bryan Chou (CEP ‘ 02) and Associate Jess Hamilton (MLA ’17)! Mikyoung Kim Press Release Boston, Massachusetts August 2, 2022 Mikyoung Kim Design is this year’s recipient of the Firm of the Year award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) which is…
Alumni Feature
Jocine Velasco (MLA ’21), Rhys Coffee (MLA ’23), and Ken Yocom are working closely with the Burke Museum, the UW Native American Advisory Board, UW Grounds and Maintenance, and the design firm GGN to study the health and viability of a camas meadow recently designed and installed at the Burke Museum on the UW campus. The collaboration is working to develop interpretive strategies to communicate the importance of this habitat type in the Cascade region for indigeneous communities while also seeking to understand how the…
Landscape Architecture alumni establish a fund for equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts
During their time as students in Landscape Architecture, Rhiannon Neuville, Peter Samuels, and Jake Minden set out to establish a support fund in their department to help advance equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) efforts. Launched in December 2020, the UW//LA Fund for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion aims to financially support a wide range of programs in UW’s Department of Landscape Architecture oriented toward justice in design education and, more broadly, EDI-oriented work within the field. Administered by the UW//LA Justice,…
Alumni Spotlight: Kara Weaver, BLA ’05
For this edition of Alumni Spotlight we had the opportunity to speak with Kara Weaver, a landscape architect at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) and a 2005 graduate of the BLA program. UW/LA: Could you describe your current position and what a typical day looks like for you? K: Right now I am the Project Manager for the Civic Park at Hemisfair in San Antonio, Texas. It’s sort of San Antonio’s counterpart to the Seattle Center, which was built for the…